Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/62

54 [v. an ell], a woman's span; he could lie down under a bowl, stand under a sieve. His hair reached down behind to his heels, his beard descended in front to his knees. On his nape was an iron hat, on his feet were iron boots, on his arms were iron sleeves, on his mitts was iron embroidery; an iron belt begirt his waist, behind the belt was an iron axe provided with an iron haft, at the end of which was an iron knob.

He sharpens his axe, whetted its level edge on a rock of iron, on a mountain tipped with steel, on five Esthonian whetstones, on six whetstones, on the sides of seven hones, on eight surfaces; by night he grinds the axe, by day he fashions the haft.

By degrees the axe became sharpened, the haft was gradually fashioned. Already a full-grown man had become full grown, the man had begun to be a man. His foot moves proudly on the ground, his head touches the clouds, the bristles of his beard shone like a leafy grove upon a slope, his hair shook about like a clump of pines upon a hill.

He advances with tripping step, approaches with unsteady gait, clad in wide breeches, a fathom wide at the foot, one-and-half at the knee, and two fathoms at the hips. Once and again he stepped, making an effort to approach the oak. One foot he stamped down upon a spot of yielding sand, with the other he trod upon the livercoloured earth. Already with the third stride he reached the roots of the oak, the barbs and endless torments of the red tree.

He struck firmly with his level-edged axe against the oak; from the tree's side a chip flew off, an outside chip splintered off which the wind carried to the great open sea to serve as a boat for Väinämöinen, as wood for the singer's skiff. Once and again he struck a blow, nor was it long before he felled the oak tree to the ground with its crown towards the south, the root-end towards the north-east inclining due north.